A Little Off Course....

What a beautiful morning!  I am supposed to be preparing for our camping trip this weekend and I find myself being swooned by my lilac bushes.

It takes me back to my childhood.  The smell is just intoxicating.  Lilacs are definitely from heaven!  To add to the nostalgia my entire family is camping together this year.  I am so excited to spend time with my mom and sister.  

Okay, so I guess I need to get back to the task at hand.  Packing for camping.  So thankful for the fun camping ideas on pinterest, thought I would share one with you.  Have a great weekend!  Time to get our camp-on!

41 Camping Hacks

Loving essential oils

I have a new love....essential oils!  If you have never tried them, you simply must!  I wanted to share a practical use that turned out to be a yummy sensation for the whole family!

My boys are always asking for the individually packaged, sliced apples.  I think they have a strange taste that I find a wee bit concerning.  The other day I had a great idea.  I used a few drops of lemon essential oils in a bowl of water and plopped in my sliced apples.  My hope had been that the oil would prevent the apples from turning brown, which it did.  I wasn't prepared for the delightful taste that it gave the apples!  

I simply add 2-4 drops of lemon essential oil to a bowl of water and add apple slices.  Easy-Peasy!

How To Keep Strawberries Fresh

Did I mention how much I love Pinterest?  Well, I came across this tip for keeping strawberries fresh from The Frugal Girls and decided to give it the Farm Girl test.  

You can find the recipe at this link:

http://thefrugalgirls.com/2012/04/how-to-keep-strawberries-fresh.html

Pinterest Busters case #1

Step 1 soak the Strawberries in water and 

vinegar mixture for a few minutes.

 

Step 2 drain and dry the strawberries in a colander.

Step 3 taste test. And the results are....

 Yum! Yum! Yum!

One of the big questions was will they taste like vinegar?  The vinegar presence is gone right away.  The boys were eating them as fast as I could wash and drain them.  A little later I also sampled one and there was no vinegar presence at all!  So far this method gets two thumbs up!

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Final Results

Two adorable little variables have skewed the results. The strawberries disappeared before this Pinterest Buster could be proven!  My guess is it works!  

 👍👍

Christmas in May!

My apple trees are loaded with blossoms!  Every year we wait for the blossoms to show themselves and then pray that they escape any late frosts!  Living in Central Oregon has many wonderful blessings; however, gardening can be a challenge with our shorter growing season and sporadic temps.   In the spring, in a days time, we can go from 70 degree temps to snow!  Currently, we are facing one of those times that freezing temperatures are threatening our apple blossoms!

Bet your wondering what all this has to do with Christmas!!!! Well.....my mother shared a fantastic tip with me to help protect my precious apple blossoms! Christmas lights! It's genius! She recommended wrapping the branches with strings of the larger Christmas lights.  Although I only have the smaller lights and am pretty confident I won't be able to find the larger, I am so gonna try this! 

Would love to hear if anyone else has tried this technique and had success!  Have a blessed Mother's Day weekend!

And so it begins....

I'm not your average farm girl....probably far from it.  I grew up in the country on 100 acres.  We had chickens, cows, a horse, pigs, a turkey named Tom, dogs, and numerous litters of kittens.  Mostly, we had pets!  My dad made his living as a well driller.  There were no pivots or irrigation pipes to contend with.  My dad would plant a crop of dry-land wheat and our cows/horse kept it mowed down.  I raised my older children about 5 miles down the road from my childhood home!   They also enjoyed a home in the country!

Fast forward several years.  I met my husband in 2006 and we soon had blended a family of 8 children.  It wasn't long before my heart yearned for that country lifestyle I once knew.  City living was not all that!  It might be convenient, but it was sure missing some things!  My husbands profession is that of a mechanic and used car salesman.  It took very little convincing to get my husband to consider a little home in the country.  You will soon learn my husband is a doer and a firm believer of go big or go home!  He had wanted a farm his whole life and now it felt like this might be the right time!    

In 2010 we purchased a 91 acre irrigated ranch with a 4800 sq ft home (and 3 rental houses)!  Wowsa....what were we thinking lol!   Farm life just became a reality!   We of course being new "farmers" (much like new money) bought horses and chickens and cows and goats and started haying....all in the same day!   Well.....we have learned a lot and still have plenty to learn!  Oh yeah did I mention we added 2 more children to the bunch?  Yep that makes ten ranging in age from 4 to 32.  

        

Welcome to our amazing life!  So glad you stopped by!  Hope you'll be back soon so we can get more aquatinted!

Amber